US documentarist Michael Moore came to the Venice film festival packing 'Capitalism: A Love Story', his latest dose of acerbic wit, this time targeting corporate greed.
"It's a genius idea that corporate America has come up with to get rid of one worker in two and get one to do the job of two," Moore said, citing figures showing productivity nearly doubling while wages hold steady.
"They've got to be stopped," the Oscar-winning creator of Fahrenheit 9/11 told reporters ahead of the press screening of the new work in the lineup for the coveted Golden Lion here.
"There's one home foreclosure, one family kicked out their home, every seven and a half seconds. That's a stunning number," he said.
He said he hoped the film would spur ordinary people to action. "People have allowed Wall Street to decimate the industrial infrastructure of our country to achieve greater profits. All of us are part of this machine that has to change,"he said. "Wall Street, corporations, government and the American people (have) bought into the system."
When pressed by a reporter to explain why he accepted funding for the movie from Paramount Vantage, the specialty film division of Paramount Pictures, Moore agreed: "Why would these corporations give money to a guy who is diametrically opposed to everything they stand for?"
His answer: "The capitalist will sell you the rope to hang himself with if he can make a buck on it."
The film will premiere at the world's oldest film festival on Sunday.